Halo

If you are just here for the pictures, skip down through this impossibly long review.

Background Story

Halo is a futuristic first-person shooter, where you play as a secial kind of soldier called a Spartan. The history of these "super soldiers" goes at least thirty years back, where children with special talent were abducted by the military to undergo special training. As the years went by, they we slowly changed with enhancements, such as strength, speed, tactical ability, and thought. Then they were given special suits that increased their strength, reactions, as well as protected them. Soon enough, human came into contact with a group of aliens called the Covenant. The Covenant seemed to be a mix of races from planets earlier conquered and technologly stolen. Their intentions were obvious when they destroyed several human colonies, warships, and planets. The war had begun for humanity's survival.

When the war reached the planet Reach (coincidently), Earth's last heavily fortified base against the Covenant onslaught, Reach had gathered as many destroyers and warships to defend it. One of the warships was called the Pillar of Autum (sound familiar?), and thirty or so Spartans along with Cortana (ships A.I.) ready to defend the base. Thousands of Covenant cruisers, battleships, and the sort neared Reach. The orbiting M.A.C.s (magnetic accelerator cannons or something, can't remember) around the planet pummeled their ships and tore the Covenant apart. But they were launching transporters and soon there were too many targets for the M.A.C.s to handle, and the Covenant broke throungh. The Spartans and humans engaged the ground Covenant, but there were too many. Most of the Spartans were killed, but some escaped but only one made it aboard the Pillar of Autum, Master Chief. The Pillar of Autum barely escaped the fray by traveling into hyperspace, but was soon followed. This is where the game kicks in and you wake up as the Master Chief.

Pause In Story

You can play the game to find out the rest, keep reading, or even get the books (where I got the information as well as playing the game). You can find the books, three of them, at your local bookstore such as Borders and Barnes and Nobles in the Sci-Fi section. The first one covers in detail what I just explained, the second is the story that follows the game, and the third is the time in between Halo (1) and Halo 2. And there is going to be a fourth that follows the Halo 2 story. Now the break is over, back to the story.

During the Game

Right after you are awoken from your cryo chamber (freeze pod for sleeping) the Pillar of Autum is attacked by covenant forces and then you must use the escape pods to make it to the ring world you see out the window, Halo. Stranded on Halo, you must aid marines to evacuate and kill the Covenant. But then a new threat appears, the Flood. They are some organism that gets into your brain and mutates your body into some klind of zombie, but will some serious mobility. These things can smeak up behind you and hit you causing serious damage, as well as fly through the air with unholy grace. Halo now packed with three different forces all attacking each other, another force joins, Halo's gaurdian (this annoying ball that floats and sings "I am a geinus" to himself). The gaurdian controls these drones that have lasers that attack the flood (only the flood) and appears to be on your side. Well I shouldnt spoil the rest if you haven't played, but if you have, you should know what happens.

(Note: OMG! I just typed an essay here. Cool.)

Now for the standard review.

Graphics

Halo came out in 2001 with the X-Box's release, and as you might know Halo practically sold X-Boxes. If you've played you know why. I am merely judging this game's graphics to the time because there are way better graphics today. When I first played this game at my friends house, I said "Holy shit! this is X-Box graphics!" The three new systems had just revolutionized the gaming industry with faster, and stronger systems to carry the most realistic things I have ever seen. In Halo's case, it was almost life-like to what the characters looked like. The weapons, vehicles, the textures... everything. Enough said.

10/10 Damn right, it got ten out of ten!

Sound

Halo's sound was not that impressive, and it was not that bad either. Yet when you listen to the grunts squeal as you attach a plasma grenade to their backs, it makes it all worthwile. The same goes for shooting marines. So sound gets...

8.5/10

Fun

I love single-player modes on games because it saves my modem from catching fire, and because of the storylines. What makes a game appealing is its fun factor, which I also can label as escapism. If you don't understand just ignore my rants and ideaologies. Everyone has their reasons for playing videogames, may it be to relax from stress, relieve anger or frustration(or add to it in some cases), or to just get that feeling like you are actually there instead of the real world, or "geting into the game". Thats what escapism is. Halo has a captivating storyline that takes you into the action and has you grabbing your tv for more. When I beat Halo, I had so much fun during the time it took me to get there and all the way through legenday mode. Which I must add, I beat. Also the fact that there are vehicles such as a tank and alien vehicles to drive and blow things up is really fun. And don't get me started on the multiplayer, that was pure fun, especially all rockets with eight people.

10/10 It took me two years to stop playing this game. How much fun could it be?

Playability

I actually don't own this game or an X-Box, but I have played it at my friends house with him and several others(to make a free-for-all eight player all-rockets game). For average gamers Halo's multiplayer only lasts so long before its boring, maybe like a couple of months. And the single player mode takes about ten hours on normal, and twice that for Legendary (it will vary on the skill of the gamer). The time for the game to be played is not that long. Yet Halo was set out to be much, much more. There were more vehicles, weapons and longer gameplay. Courtesy of a PC Gamer magazine subscription, I got to see on a demo disk the Evolution of Halo. What I saw led me to believe that there was to be more to Halo, but it was cut out by a limit of some sort. And thats why i give Halo a..

8/10

Now take a deep breath, blink, and look away from the screen. If you are seeing spots sit farther from your monitor. Eyes hurting is normal.

And the final review grade is...

91% - "This is an awsome game"

Here are some screenshots that I found on the internet, mostly from Gamespot because they had some good ones,

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